Monday, January 26, 2009

The Good and the Bad

Just some tidbits from the weekend through this morning...

The Bad: Jacob's pooping schedule definitely threw off our Saturday a bit.The Good: He seems fine after all of that, and we still managed to have a fun weekend. Jacob went to his first indoor lacrosse game on Saturday night, and was a very good boy. He even got a mention on the radio when we went up to visit Daddy in the press box! On Sunday, at long last, all three of us had a lovely visit with Colin and Laurie. I will post pictures soon. Colin wasn't quite sure what to make of Jacob, but he is such a cutie! I'm sure as they both get older there will be many fun times ahead. We just had a really nice visit with the whole family, and it was a nice change of pace for a Sunday afternoon. We don't get out much, so it was nice to interact with some other people for a change! :)

The Bad: Jacob still didn't get a clean bill of health at the doctor this morning. While he seems a lot better and isn't audibly wheezing, the doctor could still hear some when she took a listen. It is probably an indicator that there's some asthma going on there. We have to keep up one nebulizer treatment a day to help strengthen his lungs against any illnesses he may get, just to get him through the winter cold season. We're going to a specialist in March, so we'll see what they find. In the meantime he's got to go get an X-ray and one other procedure that makes sure he's not aspirating food into his lungs. He shows a couple signs of acid reflux, which could lead to food aspiration, which can masquerade as asthma. He was on the reflux medication for a while, up until a month ago, and it turned out that the dose he was on was low for his current weight...but since he seemed ok, we figured he was probably better. But shortly after that, he started arching his back a lot when he was upset, which can be a sign of reflux. It's tough to say for sure that it's that, because his spit-up symptoms aren't that bad, but to be on the safe side he's back on it. We'll see if it makes a difference. He hasn't gained any weight in the last month, which doesn't surprise me at all. Between not feeling good, not eating well, and not taking solids, I was actually afraid he'd lose weight.The Good: Despite all of this stuff, he seems to be feeling good. He was super happy for most of the weekend. The cough isn't bad but does show up periodically, eliciting sympathetic looks from people when we're out and about. But it's so much better than it was, and his mood is really great most of the time. The doctor didn't have much advice about solids, but said to keep offering them. She suggested a type of Yo-Baby (baby yogurt) that has cereal and fruit, so that may be something to try to keep up his iron. We can also try finger foods that dissolve easily, so we'll look into that, I guess. And hopefully the reflux medication means that he'll be back to eating normally soon--no more cutting out early, arching his back and whining. And tonight, he did eat some cereal and bananas...not exactly excited about it, but he did open his mouth periodically. That much can be considered progress around here, sadly! Daycare did offer to try to feed him cereal there, to take advantage of the peer pressure situation. I don't know why I'm hesitant...whether it's just because I don't want them to have to deal with potential meltdowns (particularly when I haven't conquered them myself yet), or I just don't know what to tell them to do because he hasn't done anything consistently enough here for me to have specific instructions. Something to think about, though.

The Good: The doctor noticed that you can just see Jacob's two bottom teeth under the surface of the gums. That was a shocker, despite the bad week of teething a couple weeks ago and the fact that he's been drooling and chewing on his hands for months.The Bad: I am fearing those teeth like few other things in the world right now. All this time I've been hoping to make it to a year with breastfeeding, but teeth definitely complicate things. When Jacob gets lazy and gets distracted while eating, he tends to bite down. Gums hurt enough, never mind what teeth might do. The doctor gave me some tips for dealing with biting, to hopefully nip it in the bud (no pun intended) before it happens too often. I'm also a little sad that his 100% gummy smile will be going away sometime soon. I know those two little teeth will have a charm all their own, but when you've fallen in love with one smile, it takes some getting used to to think of it changing. One more sign my little boy is growing up fast!

The Bad: We still have a sick little boy with no real end in sight. It's discouraging because we've waited so long and tried so many things. I'm convinced Jacob has a longer list of prescriptions on file at Wegmans than I do.The Good: What he has appears to be fixable. As I mentioned in another post a while back, at times like this I always try to remind myself that this isn't that bad. It may be hard to watch and a little inconvenient at times, not to mention expensive (co-pay after co-pay...), but it's not cancer, it's not some horrible disease, and it's not something that should stick around forever. It may not be easy, but in the grand scheme of things, we're blessed to have a relatively healthy and happy little boy. He doesn't seem that thrown off by most of this, so as long as he's happy, I can be happy too.